


that the nights were mainly made (for saying things that you can't say tomorrow day)

by plannedserviceinterruption



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Not really though, bodyguard!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 12:44:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3810862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plannedserviceinterruption/pseuds/plannedserviceinterruption
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life would be so much easier if people would stop trying to kill Jane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	that the nights were mainly made (for saying things that you can't say tomorrow day)

**Author's Note:**

> There are some lines from community and parks and rec, two of my fave shows. See if you can spot them!
> 
>  
> 
> Like always, all mistakes are mine!

"You're late," is the first thing that greets her when she steps off the elevator. Coulson's assistant, Mr. Swan, legit, Mr. Swan who is as good looking as he is efficient, is waiting for her. He's tapping his foot like he's going to assign her detention, and Darcy can see why Coulson likes this guy so much. But this isn't junior high so she just barely nods and steps faster.

"He's waiting for you in his office, better get in there. You look like you had a great time."

The words had a cadence of an insult, but she's going to take it as a compliment. Usually, she has a snappy retort ready to launch at Swan. Sadly, because she is hungover as hell and is a better person, she can acknowledge that he was correct in his assumption. She did indeed drink the bar and did had a great time too. But if she wasn't hungover, she'd definitely have words with Mr. Swan and his rude ass remarks. Instead, she circumvents him and heads to Coulson's office, whose door is closed.

She knocks on the door lets slips in quickly to not cause a ruckus.

"Sorry, I'm late, I didn't want...to come," Darcy finishes. She really did not. The morning had been a nightmare, she had been halfway to In-N-Out to order an animal style double cheeseburger when Jane had called her. If alcohol hadn't fried Darcy’s brain the night before, she was sure that Jane’s furious yelling through the phone succeeded where alcohol failed.

Turning around, she sees Coulson’s default blank face and Jane’s puckering frown. There is a pregnant silence the moment she walked in, like they were fighting and she was interrupting, which was really not anything different than a typical day. What wasn't typical was the tension that unfurled. Either they were talking shit about her or they all collectively planned to ambush her.

“Okay, let’s just put all our cards on the table. I’m a little bit hungover.”

The vein above Coulson’s left eyebrow pulses and enlarges like it’s a separate entity of its own. Darcy has affectionately named it Lil Coul in previous encounters.

"Where the hell were you?” Jane exclaims, arms wide and flailing. Great. It was one of those days.

She takes a sip of her coffee and manages to accidentally spill some on her hands. She wipes it on her sweater and frowns, "no questions until my lawyer is present please," she says and takes a seat beside Jane.

"Thanks for coming in, Miss. Lewis," Coulson says. 

"Darcy's fine," Coulson raises an eyebrow, "fine, gosh, Lewis is fine, we'll work our way up to that, I thought we were close, you know, with you stealing my iPod and then returning it six years later," she says sardonically, “did you enjoy it? All my hit songs from 2011?”

Coulson sighs, which makes her smile.

Darcy maneuvers so her knees reach her chest in Coulson’s criminally comfortable chair, “so what's up with the emergency meeting? Jane sounded super pissed on the phone, you know, more pissed than you normally are," she gestures toward her.

"I'm like, super calm all the time!" Jane exclaims, which surely does not aid in this situation.

Darcy lifts her hand to indicate that Jane has just proved her point. Jane breathes through her nose and waves her off.

It's then she notices the other lurking member of their secret meeting. She’s going to blame it on her douche move of wearing sunglasses inside because she would have definitely saw Bad Boy Bucky Barnes leaning against the bland white walls of Coulson’s office looking achingly cool and suave. And yes, Bad Boy Barnes because he’s intimidating as hell, and because she’s seen him walking around SHIELD’s hallways with swagger, all the fucking time, like he knew that he was hot shit. And Darcy is willing to admit that he is correct, especially today and especially with that outfit.

Normally, he’d be clad in his tact gear, not that she’d know—okay, so maybe she has walked by the launch sites a few times after their missions just to stare at their post-glory look, so what?—which Darcy briefly considers why she finds him so intimidating. But what he’s wearing today isn't. He's wearing a buttery soft looking leather jacket on top of a cottony grey Henley, with a pair of nice fitting black jeans to complete the look. The outfit was so fitting it was satisfying, like seeing a hipster frequent a hole in a wall café. Not to mention, the way he was positioned definitely showcased the nicely formed muscles. He wasn’t as beefy as Steve or Thor, but he did fill whatever outfit pretty nice. Seeing it close up for the first time just affirms that she was right in her assumption, that he was hot in pretty much anything. It must be a corrupt government program agent thing because it also applied to like every SHIELD agent as well.

After a few seconds, he must feel her gaze beneath her glasses, a small smirk forms at the corner of his mouth and his eyes gain a subtle glint, like he knows. She refuses to be embarrassed by that. Narrowing her eyes behind her glasses, she removes them and puts them on top of her messy hair. His grins widens.

She waggles her fingers in return.

Coulson sees the exchange and looks between them, "I've see you've met Sergeant James Barnes.”

Darcy twists her lips, but doesn’t let her eyes wander from Bucky’s, "uh, soft maybe. I'm not too sure if I've actually spoken a few words to him." she shakes her head.

"Good, then we won't need introductions. He's your new tail."

Well, this was a turn of events.

Darcy chokes on her iced coffee, "holy shit, what, why?" she laughs, she should have totally ignored Jane's call coming out of her parking lot. It was definitely not worth flipping off the soccer mom who cut her off, and she was definitely not in the right mind for this. Not to mention, she had her whole day planned out, but now the thought of juicy peaches at the farmers market and sunshine and sand on the beach felt a lot like catching smoke, dwindling away from her grasp.

It was her day off, Damnit.

"Dr. Foster has been a victim of a series of death threats in the past few weeks," Coulson pulls opens the file in front of him. He hands them copies of the threats. Darcy skims through the first few and she feels her eyebrow skyrocket through her hairline. 

"Damn, Jane. Why do you have to be so public enemy number one? I thought London was the end of it," she mutters and puts down her iced coffee and flips the page. 

"It's not my fault! This is victim blaming. You are victim blaming!" Jane stresses out. Darcy waves her hand apologetically.

While the threats are lacking in spell check, they compensate in their creativity. Darcy has never seen or heard of an axepick used in the way that the perpetrator wants to into Jane's head. And the prose was actually extremely well written. A+ plus for originality.

She giggles at the imagery that a certain line paints. It reminds her of _Silence of the Lambs_ which is not a funny movie by default, but the way it was written in freaking _Iambic Pentameter_ causes her to laugh in her hungover state of mind.

"Lewis." Coulson says, there is a hint of pained irritation in his eyes.

She instantly sobers up.

"Oh shit, my bad, death threats are still imminent," she waves it off.

He sighs, "Like I was saying, Barnes is going to be accompanying you and Dr. Foster around the building, he's in the position of power here, so if he feels that there is a danger, you will listen to him. He will tail you until you reach home and from there, he will canvas the area and if there's any threats, he will get you."

“Wait? Just me? What about Jane?”

“Jane has Thor between work hours.”

Darcy toys with the zipper on her hoodie, "okay that sounds fine and dandy and everything, but why am I needing the bodyguard? Isn't Jane the one getting threats? You know, the one's that threaten death?"

"Yes, but that's an oversimplification, If this person wants to attack Dr. Foster, he might try targeting you, and we wouldn't want that," Coulson explains.

"They're not even real, I mean come on, Stark gets threats every time he takes a step outside, why isn't he getting tailed?" Jane complains. Darcy smiles. Somehow, dealing with SHIELD always reduces Jane into a five year old child. Barnes frowns and a delicious pucker rises between his brows.

“Dude, Stark has a literal body of iron to protect him and uh, we don’t?” Darcy doesn't enjoy this whole bodyguard thing, but if it keeps her from dying, she’s not going to say no.

"Dr. Foster, this is your safety they are threatening, we will not stand idle when we could be preventing any harm in coming to you,” Coulson recites it like he’s reading from a manual.

Darcy closes her eyes.

 "I get them all the time! Why are we so worried about it this time?" she snaps her fingers, "oh, last month, there was that guy who tried to hack us to pieces, maybe it was him?"

At that, Bucky straightens his back and stares at Darcy with an undecipherable look.

"Someone tried to hack you to pieces?" he asks.

Darcy sighs, "she meant hack into our system."

Bucky sags against the wall again.

 "That it true, however, in that case, we found the perpetrator and simply neutralized him as a threat," Coulson answers smoothly.

"What? Like you killed him?"

Coulson stonewalls, "I can't say."

There is still something very off about this situation and Darcy does not like it at all.

"Okay, so you did kill him. Great." Darcy shrugs sarcastically, "but why do you have such a high esteemed member of your faculty," she nudges her head to Bucky Barnes, "guarding wee little us? He doesn't seem the type to enjoy minion work," she glances at him, "No offence. Or why can't we just Henry David Thoreau this and go live in a cabin in the woods?"

Bucky Barnes has a killer smile, but she's not going to disclose that because it wasn't the time and also because he could probably crush her skull with his shiny metal arm. And Darcy liked her skull the way it was, whole and uncrushed.

" _High esteemed member?_ Oh, been studying up on me, doll?"

Okay, he also had a panty crushing smirk.

"What if I said I was?" She smiles sugary sweet and his grin widens at her challenge. 

Coulson coughs, annoyance abundant even in the little sound, “Sergeant Barnes is currently on leave from missions until I say he is cleared. And he is here because we do not know the calibre of the threat. And until then, he’s here for your safety,” he gives Darcy a meaningful look, “not for anything else.”

Darcy pouts, “oooh shit, what did he do to piss you off?”

“Classified.”

She rolls her eyes, “fine, but how long are we going to be followed?”

“Until we neutralize the threat.”

Jane groans and sinks into the chair like a petulant five year old waiting for her parents to decide on her punishment.

"So he's going to be shadowing us? Following us?" Jane asks.

"Yes."

"Can't we just have body cameras?"

"Do these cameras have the ability to prevent you to be shot?"

Ooof. Bucky Barnes was spicy today.

"No, but they'd be less invasive."

Darcy shrugs. Well, she does have a point.

"Jane, why are you so against us not getting shot?" Darcy asks.

"I'm not against that. I'm just against government facilitated groups invading our space. Sooner or later, they'll be 1984ing us and the thought police will be telling us to bend and spread."

Darcy cackles, "bend and spread? Are the thought police going to make love to us?"

"Well," Bucky drawls, "I wouldn't be bend and spreading you personally, Dr. Foster," Bucky's smirk turns leery as he eyes Darcy, "your assistant, on the other hand."

Darcy snorts and shakes her head, "classy, Barnes."

Coulson shuts his eyes, "enough. We've been through scenarios and this is the best course of action in response to these threats."

Jane stubbornly juts her chin out and Darcy slowly sips her coffee.

"So, I guess it's settled then," Coulson clasps his hands together, "Sergeant Barnes is your new bodyguard."

"Ugh, whatever," Jane knows when she's been beat, and judging by the cadence of her voice, Darcy knew she's regretfully accepting this, "Do what you want, just don't interrupt my research," Jane rises from her chair and exits the room.

She slams the door.

Darcy lets her eyes linger on the door before she frowns, "uh, the idea will grow on her."

Coulson's eyebrow dubiously rises, "I'm sure it will. Lewis, show Sergeant Barnes the labs and the lounge areas and areas that you both frequent."

She cringes," Yeah about that, it's kind of my day off, can this wait until- fine, Jesus Christ, just stop glowering. The look isn't becoming on you."

Taking the iced coffee from the table, it leaves a ring of condensation that Coulson eyes with annoyance. Smiling charmingly, she waggles her fingers in a gesture of good faith.

Bucky follows obediently. Once he shuts the door behind him, she starts walking to the elevators.

She can feel the weight of his stare on the back of her head. Already mildly annoyed, she doesn't care to be a little rude.

"What?" She grunts and turns around to meet his stare head on.

What greets her is Barnes' crooked grin and she’s not going to lie, that boy was fine.

He licks his lips, "Nothing,” his smile returns, “just not used to women who aren't scared when faced with death threats."

This day already sucked big time, and she’s really not in the mood to be giving a tour of the overcompensating science department. But the look of admiration on his face almost makes it worth it. Almost.

She wills herself to not blush. She’s calm, cool and collected. Or as calm and cool and collected she could be when she looked like she drank a copious amount of alcohol the day before.

“You work with Natasha like every day. That woman is like the epitome of ‘women who aren’t scared when faced with death threats.’”

“Yes, but she’s a trained assassin and you’re—,” he cuts himself off.

She raises her eyebrow, “what? A civvie? I guess when you’re too involved with your work, you miss out on all the fun stuff.”

He narrows his eyes, and then a slow smile crosses his lips.

“Trust me, I’m just beginning to be _involved_ with my work.”

“Oh my god. Does that line ever work for you?

He puts a hand on his heart, feigning hurt, he frowns.

"Straight in for the kill, aren't you, Lewis?"

She smiles in a way that it crinkles her eyes.

In response, something _warm_ shines in his blue eyes. Darcy tries really hard to remain unaffected. Leery looks she can handle, smoldering eyes she can put up with. But the look that Bucky is giving her is something she cannot deal with. Oh, this was getting dangerous.

"So, what did you do to piss off Son of Coul?" She whispers in an attempt to steer clear.

He smirks, "wouldn't you like to know?"

She presses the call button, "um yes, I would."

There is a slight glint in his eyes that she doesn't trust, "let's just say the Hawk is now a feathered bird."

"Hawks are already feather-" She freezes then lets out a strangled laugh, "You're the one that pranked Barton last week!"

In a sweet sense of twisted justice, just a week after Barton had dropped a bucket of yellow paint on Darcy through the lab doors, said perpetrator had ran into the lab, furious and feathered to the bone. He'd been covered with an obnoxiously bright array of fluff, a victim of a classic punishment- tar and feathered. But instead of tar, it was craft glue and instead of feathers, it was cotton balls. But she got the gist of it. It had taken him twenty minutes to remove the balls and six showers to wash off the glue.

He smiles smugly, and Darcy thinks how utterly hot cockiness is.

"Are you impressed?" he asks, head tilted and mouth sharp, like an eager puppy seeking approval.

Darcy shakes her head in disbelief, mouth still agape.

"Yeah, actually," she chuckles, "and also a little pissed that you got to him first, because I had planned to do something to get back at him. And also, Son of Coul is punishing you because of that?" she asks incredulously.

“Doll, he ain’t punishing me because there’s no proof,” he snaps back into his rugged smirk, "What did you have in mind for Barton?"

"Oh, no, he is definitely punishing you because he knows, he knows like everything, you can’t eat a donut without him asking how it was the next day,” she raises her eyebrow, “and I am not telling you. For all I know, you’re going to narc on me to Barton, and you won’t be needed to ward off potential stalkers and axe pick murderers, because I will be dead. Dead, because Barton killed me.”

“You’re making this hard for me to let go. My curiosity is piqued.”

“Mm,” she shakes her head,” all I’m going to say is that it was something mean, not illegal. But it was a dick move. I’m not going to tell you."

"Why not?" and there comes the crooked smile again, and she knows she needs to get it together because just cause he’s hot doesn’t mean she will divulge her secrets, "I promise I won't tell Barton."

"Oh, promises mean nothing to me in this war. You're just going to have to wait."

He shakes his head, eyes burning now. She wills herself to keep cool, just as the elevator arrives.

"Hope it's worth the wait, Lewis."

"Oof. You will be amazed."

"I have high expectations."

"You gotta," she agrees with a tilt of her head, "after my prank last week, you should be drowning in a sea of higher standards."

His grin becomes a smirk and Darcy laughs.

"Should I be worried?" he asks, edging closer. His voice drops and he gives her the same coy look. His gaze flickers to her mouth before coming back to her eyes and she is not going to read into this because getting hopes up was something she just did not do.

She bites her lip, "only if you're not on my side."

"Then I won't be worried," the cocksure smile does something to the pit of her stomach and she feels herself giving in.

The elevator dings and she shakes herself out of it. She smiles to him as she motions to the busy walls of the science department.

"Welcome to the Science Department, Sergeant Barnes."

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
